Choral Music
- Peter Kelley, Upper School Academic Dean and Math teacher
“Visitors to our chapel services often exclaim, ‘The boys—they actually sing!’ And they do. I think being an all-boys school helps.”
Singing abounds at St. Albans School. Founded as a school for choristers at Washington National Cathedral Choir, St. Albans maintains a rich choral program, with students of all ages singing throughout the year in chapel, in the Cathedral, in the Washington area, and beyond. Today, fifteen to twenty Lower School boys continue to sing in the Cathedral’s choir of men and boys.
Lower School students explore many aspects of music and learn to sing in four years of classroom music, they offer annual concerts, and have the option to join the CBA Chorus or the Middle School Coed Chorus (with girls from the National Cathedral School).
Upper School boys take classes in music history and theory or private voice lessons. Most popular, however, are the active choral ensembles, such as the 150-voice Chorale, the Madrigal Singers, and several a cappella groups. One in four boys in the Upper School participates in a performing choral group at St. Albans.
In recent years, St. Albans boys have sung on the stage of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, at Carnegie Hall, and for the National Tree Lighting. Groups have also traveled as far as Australia and South Africa to perform.
St. Albans School
Phone: 202-537-6435
Located in Washington D.C., St. Albans School is a private, all boys day and boarding school. For more than a century, St. Albans has offered a distinctive educational experience for young men in grades 4 through 12. While our students reach exceptional academic goals and exhibit first-rate athletic and artistic achievements, as an Episcopal school we place equal emphasis upon moral and spiritual education.